Nigerian Foreign Policy – SS2 Citizenship & Heritage Studies Lesson Note (Second Term)

Foreign policy is the set of goals that shows how a country deals with other countries. Nigeria’s foreign policy is based on four principles: non-alignment, legal equality of states, non-interference and Afrocentrism. Its aims include protecting Nigeria’s image, promoting peace, economic growth, ending racism and oppression, and African unity.

Subject: Citizenship and Heritage Studies
Class: SS2
Focus: Principles, objectives and achievements

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• explain what foreign policy means;
• state and explain the four main principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy;
• list the key objectives of Nigeria’s foreign policy;
• describe the major achievements of Nigeria’s foreign policy;
• identify the challenges Nigeria faces in carrying out its foreign policy today.

What is foreign policy?

Think of Nigeria as a person living in a very large street (the world).

• Your internal policy is how you behave inside your own house (how you cook, how you treat your siblings).
• Your foreign policy is how you behave when you step outside. Who are your best friends? Who do you trade with? How do you react when there is a fight on the street?

In short, foreign policy is the set of goals that shows how Nigeria interacts with other countries like Ghana, the USA, China or South Africa.

What are the main principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy?

These are the “ground rules” that Nigeria follows whenever we deal with other nations. We do not just act anyhow. We follow these:

• Non-alignment: During the “Cold War”, when the USA and Russia were rivals, Nigeria decided not to take sides. We chose to be friends with everyone.
• Legal equality of states: Whether a country is as big as China or as small as Togo, Nigeria believes every country should be respected equally.
• Non-interference: We believe countries should solve their own internal problems. Nigeria does not just jump into another country’s business unless we are invited to help.
• Afrocentrism (Africa as the centrepiece): This is the most important one. Nigeria believes that Africa’s problems are our problems. We always put Africa first in everything we do.

What are the key objectives of Nigeria’s foreign policy?

Nigeria wants the following from its relations with other countries:

1. Protecting our image: To make sure the world respects Nigeria and Nigerians living abroad.
2. Promoting peace: Nigeria wants a peaceful world because if our neighbours (like Benin or Niger) are at war, it will eventually affect us.
3. Economic growth: We make friends so we can sell our oil and buy the things we do not produce, like cars and specialised technology.
4. Ending racism and oppression: Nigeria has always fought against people being treated badly because of their skin colour (like we did during Apartheid in South Africa).
5. Unity of Africa: We work to make African countries stronger by working together through groups like the AU (African Union) and ECOWAS.

What are the major achievements of Nigeria’s foreign policy?

Nigeria is often called the “Giant of Africa” because of its size and because of what it has done for others:

• Ending Apartheid in South Africa: Many years ago, black people in South Africa were treated like second-class citizens. Nigeria spent millions of dollars and used “diplomatic heavy lifting” to help them get their freedom.
• Peacekeeping in West Africa: When countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone had terrible civil wars in the 1990s, Nigerian soldiers (under ECOMOG) went there to stop the killing and bring back peace.
• Leadership in ECOWAS: Nigeria was a founding father of ECOWAS. We help make it easy for Nigerians to travel and do business in places like Ghana or Ivory Coast without needing a visa.
• Technical Aid Corps (TAC): Nigeria sends our professionals (doctors, teachers, engineers) to help smaller African and Caribbean countries that do not have enough experts. We pay their salaries just to be a “big brother”.

What challenges does Nigeria face today?

It is not always easy to be the “Giant”. We face some hurdles:

• Domestic problems: It is hard to tell another country to be peaceful when we have our own security issues at home.
• Economic strength: To be a leader in the world, you need a very strong economy. When the naira is weak, our voice abroad sometimes feels a bit quieter.
• Changing world: With new powers like China playing a big role, Nigeria has to be very smart about how we balance our friendships.

Key terms for quick revision

Evaluation

1. What is foreign policy?
2. State the four main principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
3. List any four objectives of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
4. Describe two achievements of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
5. Give two challenges Nigeria faces in carrying out its foreign policy today.

Assignment

Answer the class discussion question below in one short paragraph. Give at least two reasons for your view.

Nigeria spends a lot of money helping other African countries. Do you think we should keep doing this, or should we keep all our money to fix our own roads and schools first?